Sex ed Rights

• Arkansas law does not require public schools to teach sex ed or instruction on STIs, including HIV, or require sex ed to be medically accurate. Local school boards decide whether it’s taught in their schools.
• If sex ed is taught, abstinence must be stressed. In fact, the state policy is “to discourage…sexual activity by students.” The curriculum is not required to include instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Arkansas does not require parental permission for students to participate in sex ed or HIV/AIDS education.
• State policy does not say whether parents or guardians may remove their children from sex ed classes.
• Public schools are to offer health and safety education, which students must take to graduate high school. As of 2015, dating violence awareness must be taught as part of this health and safety education curriculum.
• Local school boards can establish school-based health clinics, which are allowed to provide sex ed. These clinics may provide contraceptives with written parental consent. They are not allowed to provide abortion referrals.
• Arkansas received $608,656 in federal funds for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in 2015, an increase in funding of over $50,000 from the year before. If you want your school to offer comprehensive sex ed, be sure to learn more at SIECUS about Arkansas sex ed policies. You can make a difference!

Age of Minority

17

• In Arkansas, as in most states, you are considered a minor (someone who is not an adult) if you are under 18 years old. Being a “minor” affects your right to information and services.

Age of Consent

16

• In the eyes of the law in Arkansas, teenagers of certain ages cannot consent or agree to sex. The age when someone can legally consent is called the “age of consent.”
• In Arkansas, the age of consent is 16, with some exceptions. For example, if you’re between 14 and 16, you can consent if your partner is also a teenager.

LGBTQ Rights

• In Arkansas, there are anti-bullying laws that protect public school LGBTQ+ students against bullying, including cyberbullying. These laws don’t apply to private, non-religious schools.
• There are not any anti-discrimination laws in place to protect LGBTQ+ students specifically.
• If discrimination, harassment or a hate crime happens to you or someone you know, please call the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender National Hotline at 1-888-THE-GLNH (843-4564) for help and support, or check out Lambda Legal. No one deserves harassment or should have to put up with it.

HIV / AIDS Testing

• You don’t need permission from your parent or guardian to get tested for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, in Arkansas. However, a physician may (but is not required) discuss this with your parents. Additionally, if you test positive for HIV or another STI and/or receive treatment, the health care provider may legally discuss this with your parents.
• If you are a minor, it is very important for you to ask questions about confidentiality when you call to make your appointment. Specifically ask, “If I make an appointment and receive any kind of services at your clinic, will you tell my parents or anyone else?” This applies to all services, including testing for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
• To make sure your visit is confidential, tell the clinic staff how to contact you about test results and future appointments without your parents knowing.
• Arkansas offers both anonymous and confidential HIV testing. This means that if you get tested for HIV, you can choose to either have your results confidentially reported to the health department using your name, or have your results anonymously reported to the health department using a number code, not your name.
• Find an HIV testing site in your area here or call the Centers for Disease Control’s 24-hour National AIDS Hotline at 1-800-CDC-INFO (232-4636).

Condoms

• People of any age, including teens, can buy condoms from a drugstore, pharmacy, grocery store or even online. A 12-pack of condoms costs about $9-12. Internal or female condoms are about $2-4 per condom. Many grocery stores and pharmacies don’t carry internal/female condoms, but they can be found online, at Planned Parenthood, at damily planning clinics and by prescription.
• You can get condoms for free or at a reduced cost from health clinics (like Planned Parenthood), HIV testing centers and local health departments. Call 1-800-230-PLAN (7526) for the nearest Planned Parenthood.
• Always check the expiration date on condoms to make sure that they haven’t expired yet. For information on how to use a condom correctly, check out this FAQ. Learn all about internal/female condoms on Sexetc.org.
• Arkansas’s laws allow for minors (defined as someone under the age of 18) to consent to a range of services related to the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. It is ambiguous as to whether the statutes are applicable to PrEP or other biomedical prevention measures. Under Arkansas law, providers may, but are not required to, inform parents or guardians if a minor seeks diagnosis or treatment for STIs, including HIV.
• In Arkansas, minors of any age do not need their parent’s consent to receive all healthcare services, including vaccinations. This is called a “mature minor doctrine” and essentially means that if you talk to your doctor/healthcare provider and they decide you are “mature enough” to make your own health care decisions, you can.

Birth Control

• A minor can get a prescription for contraception without a parent’s permission under one or more of the following situations. The minor:
  • is 14 years or older
  • is a high school graduate
  • is married
  • is a parent
  • is/has ever been pregnant
• All other minors must get a parent’s permission to receive a prescription for contraception.
• Clinics called “Title X clinics”—pronounced “title ten”—provide sexual and reproductive health care to both teens and adults. Title X clinics offer many services, including prescriptions for the Pill, pregnancy option counseling, and testing for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
• If you go to a Title X clinic, your appointment will be completely confidential.
• These clinics charge on what’s called a sliding-scale fee basis, which means they help you pay what you can afford, and you can pay in cash. If you pay for your visit by using your family’s health insurance, then your parents are likely to see the bill when it arrives in the mail.
• To make sure your visit is confidential, tell the clinic staff how to contact you about test results and future appointments without your parents knowing.
• Call 1-800-230-PLAN (7526) for the nearest Planned Parenthood or use this tool to find a Title X clinic near you:

• If you go to another health care provider, then you need to ask them about their confidentiality rules when you are making the appointment. Ask them when you call:
  • Can I get services at your office without my parents’ permission?
  • Can my parent/s have access to my records?
  • Will my parent/s see the bill?

Abortion Rights

This section is currently being updated and may not have the most current information (as you know, these laws have been shifting quickly). We are working to refresh it ASAP! For now, you can see updated abortion policies here.

• Abortion is illegal with very limited exceptions
• If you are under 18 years old and want an abortion, one parent or guardian must give consent before you can get one. This is called “parental consent.” This written permission must be notarized. If that’s not possible, you are able to ask a judge for permission, or get special permission if it’s an emergency. This is called “judicial bypass.”
• ­­­You do not need parental consent if you are receiving an abortion because of abuse, assault, incest or neglect or if it is needed due to a medical emergency.
• Arkansas makes people have an ultrasound before they can have an abortion and the health care provider is made, by Arkansas law, to offer the person the option of view the ultrasounds image of the pregnancy.
• In Arkansas, Medicaid, a program that provides health care funding, does not provide coverage for medically necessary abortions, even though there has been a court decision that says the state is supposed to do so.
• There is a 24-hour waiting period for anyone seeking an abortion. Counseling must be provided in person before the waiting period begins. This means that a person needs to have two in-person appointments in order to get an abortion.
• If you need help paying for an abortion, call the National Abortion Federation Hotline at 1-800-772-9100, Monday–Friday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday–Sunday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time).

Adoption

• To learn about the process of adoption and the services available, visit the National Council for Adoption.

Pregnancy

• You do not need a prescription from a doctor or health care provider to get a pregnancy test. You can purchase a pregnancy test from a pharmacy, grocery store, or online. They cost between $10 and $18. You can also take a pregnancy test at a doctor’s office or clinic, like Planned Parenthood. Many clinics offer free or reduced-fee pregnancy tests.
  • Call 1-800-230-PLAN (7526) for the nearest Planned Parenthood.
• All visits to Title X clinics are confidential for teens and adults. They will not share your records with your parents or your family doctor (or anyone else) without your permission.
• If you pay for your visit by using your family’s health insurance, then your parents are likely to see the bill when it arrives in the mail. Almost all clinics provide free or sliding-scale fee services to teens to make it easier to afford visits.
• To make sure your visit is confidential, tell the clinic staff how to contact you about test results and future appointments without your parents knowing.
• Beware of so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). These centers claim to give you complete and accurate information about your pregnancy options when they actually want to discourage you from getting an abortion. They offer misleading and medically inaccurate information about abortion. Common names of these centers are “Crisis Pregnancy Center,” “Pregnancy Aid,” “Birth Right,” “Open Door” or “Pregnancy Counseling Center.” They are often set up near clinics and Planned Parenthood locations to confuse patients to accidentally enter the CPC instead.

Emergency Contraception

• There are several types—or “brands”—of emergency contraception, sometimes called EC or the morning after pill.
• People of any age can buy the brand Plan B One Step and its generic versions at a local pharmacy over the counter, which means you can buy EC off the shelf.
• EC sells for between $35 and $60. Prices vary depending on the brand and the pharmacy.
• Emergency rooms are required to give information on EC but are not required to give it to a patient upon request.
• To find a provider or clinic near you, call the Emergency Contraception Hotline at 1-888-NOT-2-LATE (668-2528).
• If you have been raped and you want EC, go to the emergency department of a hospital or call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). Open 24 hours, the hotline will connect you to EC providers near you. For other helpful information, check out the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network’s Web site.

Sexting

• In Arkansas, sexting is illegal for those under 18. Sharing sexual images of a minor is illegal and considered child pornography, even if both parties are under 18.